


Time Passes And People Change

by afteriwake



Series: In So Few Words [46]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Catching Up, Five Years Later, Gen, POV Dokugamine Riruka, Reunions, Surprised Riruka, job offer, not what was expected
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-15
Updated: 2012-07-15
Packaged: 2017-11-10 01:32:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/460747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some reunions do not go according to plan.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Time Passes And People Change

It is five years later when they meet again. It is not by accident; she receives a letter, on the company letterhead, at her apartment in Tokyo. Five years, almost to the day, after the fateful events with Ichigo and Ginjou and all of that. She has done a good job of putting her past behind her. She is happy now, no longer the spoiled brat she used to be. She has changed her name, dyed her noticeably magenta hair to black and cut it shorter, changed her mode of dress and started anew. But still, he found her.

And so she goes to Naraki City, to the old building that had been their headquarters. It is no longer there; now there is a nice hotel, with a restaurant on the bottom floor. She has been told to go to the restaurant and he would be there. If he found her he surely knew what she looked like, so there was no need to worry he wouldn’t find her. And, sure enough, five minutes after her arrival she is joined at her table. “Hello, Yukio,” she says, not looking up from her menu.

“You’ve changed quite a bit,” he replies. “Never thought I would see you wear glasses, for starters.”

“I was trying to hide, I guess,” she says with a shrug, picking something off the menu and closing it. She looks at him, then smiles a bit. He had changed, too. He was much taller, for one, and while still youthful he no longer looked like a little boy. He looked more like a young man on the verge of adulthood. He also looked…not as aloof. Not as cocky. Not quite humbled, but certainly not how he had been five years prior. “You look grown up.”

“Had to do it eventually,” he says with a shrug of his own. His voice was hitting the range where it was starting to really become a man’s voice. It was deeper, more masculine. It was a nice voice, and it suited him. “I have a proposition for you.”

“All right,” she replies, looking at him. “What is it?”

“Work for me,” he answers. “After…that day…I told Jackie within three years I’d bring the company to new heights and then have all of you work for me. It took a little longer to track you down to make the offer, but I finally found you.”

A warm laugh spills from her. “ _That’s_ what all this was for? A job offer?” she asks. She shakes her head. “Thank you, but no. I’m happy where I’m at in life.”

“I could make you rich,” he says, getting a little heated. “Make you a leader in business.”

“Yukio,” she says, placing a hand on his. He stills, then looks down at their hands, then back at her. “Thank you for the offer. Very much. But really, I’m fine.”

“I can help you show the world that you’re special,” he says.

“The world doesn’t need to know that I’m special,” she replies, removing her hand. “The world doesn’t need to know me at all. I have a job I love, I have a man I love…that is enough.”

He looks at her, really studies her. “You really have changed, Riruka,” he replies. “More than I had thought you would.”

“I’m glad I defied expectations,” she says with a chuckle.

“I guess I should go,” he says, standing up. But she puts a hand on his arm and shakes her head. “Why?”

“Because it would be nice to catch up,” she says. “I may have put my time with Xcution behind me, but that does not mean I don’t think about you guys.”

He thinks, then sits back down, taking the menu from in front of her and looking at it. “What do you want to know?”

“Everything,” she says. “Five years is a long time.”

He looks away from the menu to her, then nods. “All right. Where do I start?”

“Wherever you want,” she says, settling into the booth, waiting and realizing that perhaps she had put the events behind her, but she had not put her feelings for her comrades as neatly away. This afternoon, though not turning out the way he had expected, could turn out to be nice after all.


End file.
